THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200496
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 113 lines
A panel appointed by Gov. George F. Allen to develop ideas for reforming the juvenile justice system has heard an earful - positive and negative - about its tough stance.
Joseph Garcia, father of Joseph D. Garcia III, a Salem High School student who died at the hands of two teenagers earlier this year, lauded the group's proposals at a hearing Thursday night in Virginia Beach. Kelly Dara, convicted in the Garcia murder, went free for 29 days before the trial because of a technicality in the law.
``Remember, she almost walked away from it all,'' Garcia told the Governor's Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform. ``I support these proposals so no other father or family will ever experience such imbalance in the scales of justice.''
At a similar hearing Wednesday night in Richmond, Randall Street criticized the proposals, saying she concurred with the results of a recent statewide poll requested by the Virginia Commission on Youth. A majority of those polled said the juvenile-justice system should focus on prevention or rehabilitation rather than enforcement or punishment.
``I don't want millions and millions of dollars to go to brick and mortar to house more kids,'' Street said. ``I want the money spent trying to help families and children get on the right track.''
The commission has taken a hard line against crime, vowing to make public safety its main priority. Its recommendations include:
Giving prosecutors more discretion in transferring cases to adult court.
Trying and punishing violent juveniles age 14 and above as adults.
Opening juvenile court proceedings to the public.
Putting troublemaking students in ``alternative schools.''
The panel's information packets report that the juvenile murder arrest rate quadrupled between 1987 and 1993, that the juvenile arrest rate for 1994 was the highest in 15 years, and that the national juvenile crime rate decreased by 4 percent while Virginia's rate increased 21 percent between 1980 and 1993.
The panel's statistics also report that the average time served in juvenile correctional centers in 1994 was 5.8 years for murderers and fewer than three years for rapists.
Attorney General James S. Gilmore III heads the reform panel and chaired both hearings. He and other commission members challenged several of the speakers, saying they wanted to correct misunderstandings about the group's proposals. At times, Gilmore sounded like he was in court, cross-examining witnesses.
A total of about 130 people attended the two hearings, and about two dozen spoke during the time for public comment. Many were critical of at least some aspects of the Gilmore plan.
Julie Garrison, representing the National Association of Social Workers, said her group opposed trying juveniles younger than 16 as adults and the philosophy that forms the underpinning of the Gilmore proposals. ``We urge Virginia to remain positive about the future of our youth,'' she said at Thursday night's hearing.
In Richmond, Street pleaded with the commission not to play politics with the issue of juvenile crime.
``At least this one citizen is getting the feeling that you're taking that approach,'' Street said. ``Being tough on crime and violent offenders is a no-brainer as far as I'm concerned. What I want to know is what you're going to do with the other 90 percent. That's what we turn to you for.''
She suggested creative ways to deal with criminal behavior.
``Make him or her wear a pair of Keds to school if they steal a pair of Air Jordans,'' she said. ``How expensive is that?''
Robert E. Shepherd Jr., a professor of law at the University of Richmond Law School, said Wednesday that he disagreed with one of the basic premises of the commission's report: that the current system, which has not changed significantly since the the 1970s, was not intended to deal with the most serious offenders.
In 1975, 41,053 juveniles were arrested, 15,372 for the most serious category of offenses. In 1993, 37,145 juveniles were arrested, 15,574 (or 202 more than in 1975) in the serious category.
``Clearly what has changed is homicides, and the major difference is the availability of handguns and the greater lethality of juvenile assaults,'' Shepherd said.
Gilmore said cited as evidence of public support for his plan the recent poll results in which 63 percent of those surveyed favored rehabilitation.
``Our recommendations will empower the justice system to do just that by alleviating the courts of the serious juvenile offenders,'' Gilmore said.
But Julie McConnell, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Richmond office, said at the Richmond hearing that the Gilmore plan focuses on a tiny minority of the juvenile population.
Of all juvenile arrests in 1993, 3.1 percent were for violent crime and .2 percent were for murder or non-negligent manslaughter, she said. And Virginia is still below the national average in the ratio of juvenile arrests to total arrests for violent crimes.
``No one denies that children should be held accountable for the crimes they commit, but we must not simply punish them and ignore the reasons they committed their crimes in the first place,'' McConnell said.
Kathleen Kenney, associate director of the Office of Justice and Peace with the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, said she was troubled by the ``overall siege mentality and punitive approach in the report.''
``Unless we seriously address the root causes of violent crime committed by youth, we will neither protect the public from crime nor care for the vulnerable victims and youth in our midst,'' she told the commission.
Donald Clary, a former teacher and now an officer in the Army National Guard from Chesterfield County, told the commission he supported its plan.
``Prosecute the crime regardless of the age he or she committed it,'' he said. ``Make the offender suffer as much as the victim. . . . Criminals must have a hard life, not an easy life. They don't deserve TV and stereo. They deserve to suffer.''
Gilmore's commission and the Virginia Commission on Youth, chaired by Del. Jerrauld C. Jones D-Norfolk, are both bipartisan groups studying juvenile justice to make recommendations to the 1996 General Assembly session.
The meetings in Richmond and Virginia Beach were the first of four to be held across the state. Hearings are planned in Roanoke and Fairfax next week. by CNB